Healing through letters
by Hayleeey
Summary: A letter sent intended for Mike never reached him, regardless of whether the accident happened or not. Months afterwards, the letter is sent back to a grieving Bella from someone who has no idea what happened. A friendship strikes up. AH/AR/OOC -ON HIATUS
1. Prologue

****(*NOTE* - PLEASE READ THIS FIRST - As much as I appreciate those who have put this story alert before the last two chapters and those who are reading this story, I am still getting notifications of 'story alerts' for this story. I'm not being a bitch or moaning, but this story is now on hiatus, so if someone wants to carry on the story, let me know, otherwise, I just wanted to let you know that this won't be carried on, I'm sorry. But thank you fo****r reading.)****

**(Sorry for the mess, I WILL finish the story, i'm not sure when, but it will have an ending at least.)**

**A/N: I really should be writing my other story instead of writing a new one.**

**I can't help writing 'romance' based stuff, this one has it's 'cheesy' moments.**

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Mike looked at her longingly and kissed her goodbye.

He would be leaving her as his work's company had opened a new office place and needed people to train others. Mike was one of the people sent. The trip was meant to last 7 weeks but he had discussed a deal with his boss so that he would be able to leave a week early. This was just so he could surprise his girlfriend of 3 years with a marriage proposal. It was fairly cheesy idea but he knew Bella would love it. As soon as he got to the apartment flat that his worked had rented for him, he would call the florists and have 7 roses sent to her everyday until the day he arrived back.

From the doorway he looked at her tearing eyes and decided he couldn't leave her with just a kiss. He walked back, gave her a longer hug than the one he just gave her and gave her a few more, much tender kisses. With her head on his shoulder and her arms on his chest, he held her tighter and whispered in her ear, "I love you." She was still clutching onto him. Behind her back, he held up his wrist and looked at his watch. 6:59pm, it would take him 3 hours to drive up but staying with Bella right here was worth the lack of sleep for the 5:30am wake up call that was waiting for him.

"Bella", he said, gently grabbing her by the arms and pulling her in front of him, "Bella, remember I love you. Whatever happens, I'm always there for you." He wiped away the tears still falling down on her face, he kissed her one last time and walked.

..................

She watched him walk to his car in the pouring rain and watched as he waved from the car and drive off. Closing the door, she went into their shared room and found her favourite jumper of his and held it up to her nose, inhaling his scent.

Her phone beeped with a message. "_I miss you already X_"

She smiled and decided she would go watch some t.v to distract herself.

The day before, she had sent Mike a letter, just a little note. She still believed in writing letters even though the internet was so much easier to keep in contact. The letter would arrive the next day, in time for Mike's arrival.

.......................

Mike put the phone down onto the passenger's seat, traffic was horrible and the rain didn't help. The roads were starting to get slippery and it was hard to see the road even with the windscreen wipers working at their fastest speed. He had already passed a minor accident earlier and a few near crashes. Drivers were beeping their horns but that didn't speed up the traffic any more.

Waiting another 20minutes, the traffic got much better, though the same couldn't be said for the weather. Only halfway through the drive, the weather got much worse. It started to thunder with flashes of lightning and in another bout of traffic Mike decided to text Bella again. This time it eased up quicker but it didn't give a slightly distracted Mike time to fully pick up his phone when an oncoming car who couldn't see him through the heavy rain headed towards his car. Just as the driver did, the brakes were quicly pressed but it was too late. Mike didn't see it coming.

........................

Her day had started early because she wanted to spend as much time as she could with Mike before he left for his trip. Mike had only been gone for just under an hour and decided she would just sleep a little, he had promised he would call when he arrived, and she assumed that would wake her up.

The sky was dark by the time she woke up and went to check her phone. No missed calls or any messages. This was odd. It was midnight, Mike would have gotten there by now. The only possible explanation was that he was lost or in really bad traffic. She sent him a text to check he was fine, "Hey, i'm just seeing how u r. x"

Walking to the kitchen to make a sandwich to snack on, she hadn't really eaten the whole day but it was too late to have a big meal.

Her phone rang and Bella ran towards it, _Mike calling_.

"Hey you..."

........................

_"Mike,_

_When you read this, you should be on your way to the new office or just coming from the first day._

_This is just a letter to let you know how much I love you. I loved you from day one when we first met back in Forks High, and to here where we live in Phoenix, I love you just the same and more each day._

_Just to let you know that I'm thinking of you._

_Love you, as always,_

_B xxx"_

_

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**A/N: I do feel a little bad that I killed off Mike. But he had to for this story, and he always bugged me in the books****. 7 roses for the 7 weeks he was meant to be on the trip.**

**Read and review, people! Read and review. Please. Reviews do get answered and everything else is appreciated :)**


	2. Returned Letters

**A/N: I totally forgot to mention that all characters belong to Ms Meyer.

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_Seven months later after the accident..._

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EPOV:

I looked at the date the letter was posted, the date said alone sometime over half a year ago. The back of the envelope had an return address. I was torn between opening the letter and leaving it alone, it was over a year, surely the sender wouldn't need the letter, whatever they had to say would have been said by now... so it didn't matter if I read it.... the envelope was fairly anonymous, just a address on the front and one on the back for return.

I went ahead and opened it.

A part of me thought I should just ignore it and throw it away, but another part of me thought I should send it back to the return address. It was a fairly personal letter, yes I probably should have returned it unopened, but instincts told me to return it with a letter explaining why the envelope was opened.

Do people even write letters anymore? Besides this person of course.. I felt a little stupid having to explain myself to a stranger but I did it anyway.

_Dear Madam,_

_I recently received an old letter from you dated over a year ago. I apologize for the opened envelope but in my defense, it was unmarked, so the opening was purely an accident._

_I hope you're still together with Mike and all is going well, or if not, then he an idiot and doesn't know how lucky he is._

_Enclosed with this letter is the letter you originally sent, apologies again,_

_Yours sincerely,_

_Edward. C_

_....................._

I felt weird posting the letter but I didn't expect much to come from it, probably a letter from her again at the most, thanking me for returning it back to her. Or even scolding me for opening it.

As I walked away from postbox I soon forgot about it and went to go meet my girlfriend, Tanya.

I met her outside the Café and kissed her on the cheek like always. Today she seemed a bit distant, but she had been fairly distant for a while now, this was the first time I had seen her for a week, I knew she had started a new job and finally got some time off work.

We had been dating for 2 and a half years, her birthday had been 3 months ago and I surprised her with a weekend trip to Paris. I loved her, I trusted her so much. I had just been in a bad relationship where I was left for another guy, but when I met Tanya, she was great and understanding when I said I wanted to take the relationship slow. She helped me forgive and forget my ex. I was still a little hurt inside because she had been my first love, but being with Tanya made me forget about the pain.

We sat down in the café and I ordered a coffee and a sandwich, I had work later and I didn't like to work on a full stomach. Tanya ordered a plain salad with water. When the food arrived I happily tucked in, I was just happy to see her. She looked well and glowing, I had hoped that we would talk about her job and hopefully sort something out about us seeing each other more once she settled down.

Tanya still seemed a little distant even during the meal, but now she was picking through her salad and she never really picked at her food unless she didn't want to offend others because she didn't like what she was served, or unless she was nervous. She had ordered the salad herself so it must have meant she was nervous about something. The thought of her cheating on me or leaving me for another person never crossed my mind.

She watched as I finished the last mouthful of my sandwich and forced a smile. Only then had I noticed she'd only eaten part of her plate and barely touched her drink.

..................

TPOV:

He had noticed something wasn't right. It was obvious. I hadn't really touched my order. I ate a few lettuce leaves and a tomato, I was too nervous to eat. The butterflies in my stomach would not calm down. I had this planned for the last few days now, starting my new job didn't help as it stopped me from meeting Edward earlier and ultimately prolonging this meeting.

Looking at his now worried expression, I knew he would hate me after today. Soon after we met, through mutual friends, he told me how his last relationship finished. The girl had left him for another man after 4 years together and now I was about to. I hated myself for this, I had earned his trust and helped him get over her. We had been together for over 2 years and just recently, for my birthday I had been surprised with a weekend trip to Paris. I had mentioned that Paris was somewhere I had always wanted to go back when we first started dating, I was shocked that he remembered, let alone a trip there. Which made it worse. I felt guilty accepting the gift, and I felt extremely guilty throughout my whole time there.

This had to happen. I _had_ to let him down, see his heart broken all over again. This second heartbreak being caused by me. It was unintentional, but it happened and I didn't know how to stop the other relationship.

He asked me how I was, what was wrong, he _definitely_ knew something was wrong. I knew him fairly well, he would be thinking what he did wrong. I had thought of whether to lie to him, pretend I had to move and keep him in the dark, keep in touch via emails and occasional visits, let our relationship to drift apart. That idea was immediately dismissed and I hated myself even more for thinking of that excuse. Edward deserved the truth, his ex had just abruptly packed her things from their shared home and left him. The way he found out she was with another man was in some gossip tabloid. Although it would break all the trust he gave me throughout our relationship and cause him to build back all those walls I spent hours and weeks helping take down slowly, I knew he would rather that I tell him the truth than lie.

Despite the selfish things I did, I hoped he would finally find that girl who would never break his heart, the one who would never shit all over his parade. In time I hope he would forgive me.

..................

Avoiding physical contact with him, glad that the table was there and mentally preparing myself for the worst, I breathed in deep,

"Edward. I'm cheating on you."

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**A/N: And so the story truly begins.... in the next chapter.**


	3. New beginnings

**A/N: To be honest, I don't really want to carry on this story anymore, I know I haven't written much anyway, but the my heart isn't in it... if someone wants to carry on the story, i'll happily let them, feel free to edit and change it. I'm sorry. I'll probably carry on my other story, do more one shots and do another story that i've been planning for a while. Something much different than this. I already know how this story would end, maybe sometime i'll just post it as a one-shot, ending it all entirely. This story in my head would only go meaninglessly back and forth and that's just pointless, but that's my honest opinion.**

**There is one more chapter after this as it was already written... but PM or email if you have anything to ask that wasn't just mentioned up there ^^^^**

** Again, i'm really sorry.**

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BPOV:

_Seven Months and 3 days after the accident..._

_..................._

Today was going to be like every other day.

Wake up, force myself out of bed, eat breakfast, check my mail and go to work. Come home, cook some dinner if I had the energy and then go cry myself to sleep. It had been like that since Mike died. I still hated thinking about it and I hated myself for feeling... like this. I knew it happened to everyone and and soon it would happen to me, but it wasn't Mike's.

Dragging myself out of bed and in and out of the shower, trying not to give in the voice in my head telling to me stay and wallow in sadness. I walked my legs down to the kitchen to try and perk myself up with coffee. With a coffee in one hand, I walked over to the door to check my mail. Nothing out of the usual, just bills and letters and some leaflets. I usually put them to one side and tried to forget about them.

Since it all happened, I went into a depressive state, I was like the walking dead, but I didn't notice it.

I stared at the pile of letters, the pile was starting to build up, I should really do something, but there was no urge to do anything about them. I noticed one was a little thicker than the others. I don't know how or why, but suddenly I was tearing the letter up and reading it.

Inside was two letters. One was from some guy called Edward and the other one was the one I had sent for Mike. Edward had sent it back to me. He thought I would want it back. I wanted to hate him for doing this to me. Instead I saw that he was trying to make a nice statement and thought, why not, I don't have much to live for anyway, I'd write him one back. Just to say thanks.

"Dear Edward,

Thank you for sending me back the letter.

You really didn't have to. I don't have a need for it anymore. I forgot about that letter anyway. Mike was in an accident, yeah, he won't need it where he is now.

Thanks anyway.

Bella."

I know it sounded horrible and sending it to a stranger would just freak them out. But at that moment, it seemed perfectly fine like it was normal to tell someone that someone I loved was dead, I didn't wouldn't expect a response. No-one would want to reply to the crazy.

The phone call telling me of the accident... I had tried to push it to the back of my mind. Mike had made it to the hospital, but he'd lost so much blood, he never had a chance. The early mourning stage was the worst. At the funeral, I cried my heart out, I couldn't even look at his grave. I found out about his plans of what he was going to do when he got back. The marriage proposal.

I started crying again. I had forgotten about the letter. I never thought I would hear about it again. The thought of it being returned to me didn't occur. I couldn't bear to look at it now and had to throw it away. I was a mess these days. Work had given me a few weeks of time off and my best friend, Jake and my mother came to stay with me was a while. They were the ones who bathed me when I just sat in the cold water, not realizing I hadn't turned on any hot water. They fed me when I just stared at the soggy cornflakes and milk.

Only the past week or so had I been trying to re-start my life again. I was put to work in the stockroom at my sales assistant job, I could control my tears in front of strangers, but sometimes it got too much for me and I had to ask for my position to change while I recovered. I was offered counseling, I refused to take it at first, but I promised family and friends that I would start soon.

I didn't tell anybody about what happened if they didn't have to know. I probably looked incredibly odd and to those who had known me before, but not of the situation, I changed dramatically.

It was suggested on occasions that maybe I should start moving on and perhaps look at dating again. I knew they had good intentions, but the thought of falling in love with someone else never register to me, and I didn't want to move on from Mike.

I drank the last gulp of my coffee and went to collect my bag and a stamp for the envelope to post the letter. I didn't read back on what I had written, I didn't care. I didn't care about a lot of things these days.


	4. The healing process

***I said I would stop writing this story - see A/N in Prologue, the story is currently on HIATUS, but it will be finished at one point, it will have The Ending at least, I'm not sure when, but if you have this story on 'alerts', you'll find out when I do.***

**A/N: Last chapter in the story from me...**

EPOV:

_Six days after the breakup...._

_.................._

Leaving the flat for apartment for work, I still wasn't over the breakup. The wound was still fresh. A part of me was angry at her for what had happened, another part was angry at myself for believing she wouldn't hurt me, and the last part, it felt nothing.

As I walked round to the backdoor entrance of my workplace, I greeted my co-workers as I passed them by and carried on walking to the staff-only room. Placing all my belongings in my locker and putting on an apron, I signed in my shift and walked into the shop front. I was glad with my job I didn't have to concentrate too much. At work, only Jasper knew about the breakup.

Jasper was my manager - newly promoted, as well as my sister's boyfriend and ". His shift had started a few hours before mine. He was the one who consoled me afterwards. My whole family were pretty nice to me, they knew how Jessica had broken my heart the first time round, but Tanya had shocked them. It shocked me too, I wasn't expecting it, not from her of all people.

The day went by quietly as usual, we were a small shop hidden away round the corner of the main shops.

Since the split, Tanya had tried to contact me, but I ignored the calls and told Jasper to pretend I wasn't home when I was. She knew she had hurt me, but she knew I would eventually start talking to her again when I was ready. I admired her honesty of telling me herself, but at the same time I wished she'd had left me just the same way as Jessica.

After work, me and Jasper decided to walk home together, rather than take the usual bus, Jasper wanted to get some beers and snacks on the way home. I didn't mind about being dragged along.

I picked up the post from the floor and left it to one side. I headed on straight ahead to take a shower, wanting to wash away the day. Today had been quite hard for me, it was the would-be anniversary, I guess probably why Jasper had insisted on us staying in tonight and watching films. He was a great friend, I would have to repay him somehow for sticking by me.

We had a surprise visitor already having made himself comfortable. Emmett, my brother. He waved at me and came over for a hug. Despite his size, he was extremely approachable. After holding onto me which seemed like an hour, he finally let go, chuckled and went to get a beer.

Jasper called out my name and told me to catch. I caught the beer bottle and something attatched which looked like a letter. The handwriting looked familiar. The flashback of Tanya telling me she was cheating appeared in my mind and I immediately knew who it was from.

I walked into my room, not closing the door to arouse more suspicion from Jasper and Emmett who were already watching me. I opened the envelope as carefully and removed the letter inside and read. It was a short note.

My first reaction was how much worse I felt. Losing Tanya was bad, but losing someone forever was much worse. Perhaps it was karma. In return of me sending her that letter back, Tanya split up with me. But it wouldn't explain why she cheated. The woman who wrote this letter, Bella, I wasn't sure if I should say something to her, I must've caused her a bit of upset sending back that letter, but to write to her again? What was the point? She would be used to receiving condolences from strangers and everyone who knew. The least I could do was apologize and send my condolences, perhaps we could even get through this together, but that was wishful thinking on my part. What was wrong with me? Was I really just thinking that perhaps something could become of this? _Shit, _I thought, shaking me head, what has this breakup done.. I hardly knew this person and had barely spoken to her.

"Bella,

I'm so sorry for your loss and for the entirety of the previous letter, I honestly meant no harm in returning the note. Please accept my apologies.

Yours,

Edward.

PS: I know it isn't the same, but I've recently split up with someone I love, she cheated on me. Although she is still here, I just wanted to let you know that friends and family are always there for you. It isn't always so bad."

I don't know what made me put the last line but it felt right to put it there. I hope that the decision wouldn't backfire on me, I wanted to use this as a way to recover, and hopefully a way to help her too. I thought so a moment at how lucky I was to have people looking at for me.

I would post this tomorrow, on the way to work, though I would need to get some stamps first. I quickly sealed up the envelope and hid it in my bag and walked out to join Jasper and Emmett.

**A/N: Thank you for reading the story.**


	5. Author's Note

**A/N**: Sorry for the mislead of a new chapter,

I just wanted to re-iterate the current status of this story.

Btw, sorry for all the scary paragraphs of A/Ns, I would have edited them as I went through decisions about whether I was going to carry on the story or not, but I thought I should leave it up just incase someone had already read the first A/N and then got confused... ok, now i'm just confusing everyone.

**'Healing through letters' is currently on HIATUS,** it was changed from permanent to normal everyday hiatus.

I don't know _yet_ when i'll be resuming the story, it will be sometime this year, i'm thinking maybe December? Depending on my uni status, it may be before then, but unlikely.

Apologies for the wait, but I don't want to let people down by completely stopping the story but no-one wants to read half-hearted chapters do they? And if you haven't heard, this story is fairly fluffy, no lemons at all on the horizon. Ever. It's rated M because I prefer M's in general... it should be rated T... but these minor details aren't important, sorry.

**So yes, keep me on chapter alert so you'll know when new chapters are up, etc.**

**But I have two other stories written so feel free to check those if you haven't and i'm about two thirds into another one-shot, this one being my first attempt at lemons.**

There may be another A/N at one point, hopefully within this month.. just to give a heads up is all.

**Thank you for your patience :)**

**Hayley.**

PSSSSSSS: I bought a laptop sleeve today and its been a few hours of 'airing' and the SMELL is still horrendous. The new fresh chemical smell, I can't stand it but im not really sure how to help the progress of smell disappear.. anyone got suggestions? I can't even describe the smell besides 'new fresh chemicals', like foamy plastic? Perhaps I should be worried for my health and air it out in the garden? Smell fail.


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